Neil McIntosh (TES Letters, January 10) seems to think that I believe we have nothing to learn from Taiwan, Japan and other Pacific Rim countries. Far from it. My point was that we should be intelligent in how we use information about education from other cultures.
We certainly can learn about interactive class teaching from other countries - and I believe that we must - and we also need to rethink what many of our children are able to achieve.
The evidence is that we can enhance the performance of our children in both the basic and the higher order skills. Schools will need support in doing this - from researchers, from teacher educators, from local education authorities and others.
But one other very important thing we can learn from other cultures is the importance of the status of education, and the seriousness with which it is addressed.
PROFESSOR CAROLINE GIPPS
Institute of Education 20 Bedford Way London WC1
